ByKim Zigfeld"Then there was the stunning interview given by Russia's Central Bank chairman Sergey Ignatyev to Vedemosti, Russia's version of the Wall Street Journal, which was published on February 20 (Russian-language link), adorned with a massive photo of a blood-sucking spider at the center of its gigantic and ominous web.In the one-picture-is-worth-a-thousand-screams department, a bar graph accompanying the piece is even more terrifying than that spider. It visualizes Ignatyev's data showing that dubious financial transmissions abroad have nearly doubled in Putin's Russia since 2006, now approaching a stunning $40 billion per year, and have increased substantially four years in a row.Ignatyev reports that total capital outflows from Russia were nearly $60 billion last year, and that illegal transmissions amounted to almost $50 billion. And then he threw this in: «Создается впечатление, что все они контролируются одной хорошо организованной группой лиц.» Translated: "It appears that the main body of the transfers was controlled by a single well-organized group of people." Russia is simply gushing cash from its veins, and a single enormous vampire is gorging at the bloody trough.As Stefan Wagstyl of the Financial Timesnotes, nobody in Russia could fail to take Ignatyev's hint: there is simply no way that a single group of actors could make off with such enormous sums without the knowledge, and indeed without the complicity, of very high-ranking figures in the Russia Kremlin, if not the highest. Charles Clover of the FT goes farther: he points out that the issues Ignatyev is raising are the same issues Sergei Magnitsky was working on before he was illegally arrested by the Kremlin, tortured, and killed in prison. Clover quotes Igor Yurgens, a former adviser to Dmitry Medvedev, stating that if what Mr. Ignatyev said about a "single organized group" is true, "such an operation would not be possible without serious support from law enforcement."Ignatyev didn't stop there. He went out of his way to draw attention to the fact that the budgetary cost to the Kremlin from fraudulent financial transfers is roughly the same as what it spends each year on education or health care -- roughly 2.5% of GDP. Reading between the lines, he's as much as accusing Vladimir Putin of making Russians sick and dumb so he can line his pockets. He found the courage to do so only upon announcing his retirement after many years in office.If this is not a description of an evil empire, what is it? Putin's regime is currently engaged in a massive military buildup, including the development of a whole new range of nuclear forces. It is in the midst of an open war against American values, arresting political opponents and journalists, crushing the internet and spewing forth nothing but neo-Soviet propaganda on state-controlled TV."

Experts shed light on Russia's capital flightRussia Beyond The Headlines
Not all the capital leaving is actually Russian, either. In 2011 the biggest outflows came from Russian subsidiaries of foreign banks, making loans to their parent banks in the West, says Andrei Klepach, a deputy economic development minister. A legal ...

Genuine capital flight is only half the official figure, according to a new study by Ernst & Young, together with the Russian Direct Investment Fund and Moscow State University’s Intelligent Reserve Center. Instead of $80 billion leaving Russia in 2011, the report says, when various accounting quirks, offshore M&A deals and errors and omissions are taken into account, the real outflow was $40 billion.
The backstory of Russia’s capital flight comes from the notorious 1990s, when businessmen simply grabbed as much cash as they could and whisked it away to an offshore haven. Hundreds of billions of dollars fled Russia, but began to return during the boom years of the 2000s, when entrepreneurs realised they could make handsome profits from domestic investments.

Related:

With the 2008 crisis, capital flight began again. It peaked at $134 billion in 2008, but fell to $56 billion in 2009 and $34 billion in 2010, after the economy bounced back. The figure grew again in 2011 on fears triggered by the Eurozone crisis, reaching $80 billion.
Last year the outflows slowed again, to $57 billion, according to Central Bank estimates. Most experts see outflows falling slightly again in 2013, to about $50 billion.
Capital flight now is also very different from in the 1990s.
“You have to remember that, in proportion, the current capital flight is a much smaller proportion to the size of the economy than in the 1990s,” says Ivan Tchakarov, chief economist at Moscow investment bank Renaissance Capital.
Russia’s GDP had grown to just under $2 trillion last year - around twentyfold since the 1990s - while capital flight has stayed approximately the same.
Not all the capital leaving is actually Russian, either. In 2011 the biggest outflows came from Russian subsidiaries of foreign banks, making loans to their parent banks in the West, says Andrei Klepach, a deputy economic development minister. A legal quirk means that foreign banks can’t set up branches in Russia, but have to incorporate local subsidiaries. The same problem in 2008 led the Central Bank to warn foreign banks to curb this kind of lending.
Another big source of capital flight is the profits of Russian overseas holdings that are reinvested into that foreign holding, or Russian companies paying off foreign loans. These profits are made abroad and reinvested abroad, but because the parent company is Russian an accounting peculiarity counts this money as capital flight.
Analysts have been arguing for years that Russian companies making money overseas and growing their businesses there should be viewed as a positive, like with corporates paying off foreign debts. Analysts estimate another $20 billion of capital flight is actually reinvested foreign earnings.
Even when the accounting quirks and other distortions are taken into account, however, $40 billion in outflows is still a lot of money, and it is mostly leaving because of the poor investment climate, corruption and uncertainty over Russia’s future.
Central Bank chairman Sergei Ignatiev said in January there are twin factors driving capital outflows from Russia: aggravation of the Eurozone crisis and the poor investment climate at home.
Ernst & Young’s report argues the poor investment climate doesn’t play a big role in driving capital flight, however: “There is no statistical relationship between investment climate indicators and the estimated real capital outflow figures,” the report says.
Alexei Devyatov, an economist with Moscow investment bank Uralsib, estimates that a one percentage point decrease in the Eurozone composite industrial production index leads to an extra $300 million to $500 million of capital outflows from Russia.
Another big change is that higher oil prices lead to bigger outflows, while in the past more petrodollars meant more economic growth.“Expensive oil is no longer viewed as a growth catalyst,” says Mr. Devyatov.“Given the economic weakness in Europe and slow progress with institutional reforms in Russia, we expect capital flight to persist over the next several years.”
Uralsib remains pessimistic, foreseeing capital outflows reaching $50 billion-$60 billion in 2013 and $40 billion-$50 billion in 2014-15, versus the official forecast of zero capital outflows in 2013 and $30 billion-$40 billion in 2014-15.
Commodities are primarily responsible for capital outflows, says Alexander Ivlev, Ernst & Young’s managing partner in Russia.
“Russia’s capital outflow situation is comparable to that of the many export-oriented economies, such as Kuwait, Norway and Japan,” he says.

What the Papers Say, Mar. 11, 2013

11 March 2013 | Issue 5084

BBC Monitoring

Kommersant

1. Yelizaveta Kuznetsova article headlined "Domodedovo left on its own" says that the Transport Ministry plans to increase the Domodedovo airport's annual passenger traffic to 56m people thanks to the modernization of the airport's infrastructure, but not to the construction of a third airstrip; pp 1, 11 (637 words).

3. Sergei Mashkin and Nikolai Sergeyev article headlined "Anatoly Serdyukov comes for questioning as brother-in-law" says that criminal proceedings have been instituted over fraud by Defense Ministry officials. As a result a large plot of land in Krasnodar Territory turned to be at the disposal of Valery Puzikov, former defense minister's brother-in-law; pp 1, 5 (728 words).

4. Anna Pushkarskaya article headlined "Businessmen having previous convictions lay claims for term" says that businessmen, who have their previous convictions expunged or cancelled, have filed complaints to the Constitutional Court, seeking the cancellation of a bill banning former convicts from running for posts at both federal and regional levels; pp 1-2 (638 words).

5. Irina Nagornykh article headlined "People's Front copes with only half of polling stations" says that the All-Russia People's Front has called on public organizations that joined it to enter district electoral commissions, which will organize the parliamentary and the presidential elections, as "independent arbiters"; p 2 (588 words).

6. Maksim Ivanov and Sergey Nikolayev article headlined "Oleg Mikheyev has backlog of business" says that State Duma deputy from the A Just Russia party, Oleg Mikheyev, will be questioned on 12 March as part of the probe into several criminal cases opened against him. It is not ruled out that Mikheyev will step down as the leader of the Volgograd Region branch of the party; p 2 (721 words).

7. Natalya Korchenkova et al. article headlined "Boris Shpigel manifests himself in fight against Nazism" says that one more well-to-do Federation Council senator, Boris Shpigel, has decided to resign. He has recently been elected president of the World Without Nazism organization; p 2 (560 words).

8. Viktor Khamrayev article headlined "NGOs to be involved in 'patriotic education'" says that the government has suggested amending the law about NGOs so that "patriotic education" becomes one of the characteristic features of socially-oriented NGOs. Human rights activists believe this will split society; p 3 (604 words).

9. Kirill Belyaninov article headlined "Pavel Astakhov separates Texas from USA" says the Russian authorities have accused the US Department of State of trying to conceal the circumstances of the death of Maksim Kuzmin, a three-year-old Russian boy, adopted by a US family; p 3 (417 words).

10. Alexander Chernykh article headlined "Prosecutor-General's Office looks for donors" says that the Prosecutor-General's Office has launched a large-scale check on Russian NGOs as regards the source of their financing. Human rights activists say that this is the first step to compile a list of "foreign agents" among NGOs; p 3 (497 words).

11. Alexander Zheglov article headlined "Gazprom's shares owned by Hermitage fund head counted" says that William Browder, head of the Hermitage Capital investment fund, has been charged in absentia with the illegal acquisition of Russian gas giant Gazprom's shares; p 4 (415 words).

12. Yulia Rybina article headlined "Killer gets even with judge for his prison term" says that a federal judge has been killed in Dagestan. Three suspects in the murder have been identified; p 4 (411 words).

13. Dmitry Butrin article headlined "Surprise to be hired to rule Central Bank" says that President Vladimir Putin has decided on the candidacy of the future head of the Bank of Russia, but refused to tell his name; p 6 (680 words).

14. Sergey Strokan article headlined "Egyptians give president runaround" says that new riots have broken out in Egypt following a court decision to uphold the death sentence on football fans, found guilty of riots in Port Said in February 2012; p 7 (555 words).

15. Yelena Chernenko article headlined "Russia finds meaning for BRICS" says that Russia sees the BRICS as an alternative center of influence in the world instead of the West, which is losing its positions; p 8 (730 words).

16. Georgiy Dvali and Aleksandr Reutov article headlined "Georgia banned from diplomatic relations with Russia" says that the Georgian parliament has unanimously approved a resolution on country's foreign policy, which aims at the integration with NATO and the EU and virtually rules out the restoration of diplomatic relations with Russia; p 8 (688 words).

18. Pavel Tarasenko article headlined "Falklands vote for old thing" says that a two-day referendum on the status of the Falkland Islands disputed by Argentina and the UK will end today. Most islanders are said to have backed their belonging to the UK; p 8 (530 words).

Nezavisimaya Gazeta

1. Ivan Rodin article headlined "Ice cream and ham permitted to be presented to officials" says that the Russian government is preparing a decree as part of the law on counteracting corruption, in place in Russia since 2008, which will clarify what presents officials are permitted to accept; pp 1-2 (500 words).

2. Alexei Gorbachev article headlined "Electoral commissions filled up with funds" says that the forming of territorial and district electoral commissions is coming to an end in Russia; pp 1, 3 (550 words).

4. Anastasiya Bashkatova article headlined "Finance Ministry runs away from rouble like devil from holy water" says that the Finance Ministry does not trust the rouble and converts all earnings of the Reserve Fund into foreign currencies; pp 1, 4 (750 words).

5. Vladimir Mukhin article headlined "Internal Troops to divide conscripts into two parts" says that the Russian leadership has decided to significantly decrease the number of conscripts and increase the number of contract soldiers in the Interior Ministry's Internal Troops; pp 1, 6 (600 words).

8. Alexandra Samarina and Ivan Rodin article headlined "Mine being prepared for opposition" says that the opposition intends to challenge the presidential bill on a new mechanism to elect State Duma deputies, which bans people who have had previous convictions from standing in elections; p 3 (780 words).

9. Igor Naumov article headlined "President draws line under list of candidates" says that Putin seems to have chosen the next head of Central Bank, but he is not going to share this information now; p 4 (850 words).

10. Vladimir Skosyrev article headlined "Pyongyang to speed up nuclear race" says that Russia and China have opposed the economic suffocation of North Korea and suggested restoring negations on its nuclear problem; p 8 (400 words).

11. Andrey Cherkasenko article headlined "Man at nuclear power plant" contemplates prospects for the development of the nuclear sector given the two-year anniversary of the accident at the Japanese nuclear power plant as a result of an earthquake and a tsunami; p 8 (620 words).

12. Yuriy Paniyev article headlined "Chavez's heritage at stake" says that the early presidential election will be held in Venezuela on 14 April; p 8 (800 words).

Vedomosti

2. Dmitriy Kazmin and Maksim Tovkaylo article headlined "CD or DVD disks to Kremlin" says that Putin does not trust reports made by auditors and state representatives in state-run companies; p 1 (353 words).

4. Anastasiya Kornya article headlined "Ballot-stuffing not for show" says that the Central Electoral Commission has denied access to videos recorded at polling stations in the Moscow Region town of Dolgoprudnyy during the 2012 presidential election for a local resident; p 2 (512 words).

6. Unattributed article headlined "Term for enemy of Ananyev brothers" says that three criminal cases have been opened against A Just Russia MP Oleg Mikheyev; p 3 (552 words).

7. Unattributed article headlined "Inadmissible complaisance" says that the Federal Antimonopoly Service has initiated proceedings against the Skartel communications company over hampering the Rostelekom communications company's access to the LTE network; p 11 (641 words).

8. Article by Vladimir Yakunin, the president of the company Russian Railways, headlined "Infrastructure and development: Russia needs infrastructure projects", criticizes an article by Vladislav Inozemtsev, published in the newspaper Vedomosti on 29 November 2012, in which he cast doubts on the need to develop railway infrastructure on Russia's east; p 6 (1,092 words).

9. Unattributed article headlined "Bilalov flies wrongly" says that the Prosecutor-General's Office has found violations in the head of the company resorts of the North Caucasus, Akhmed Bilalov's expenditures on foreign trips; p 2 (509 words).

9. Unattributed interview with Moscow mayor Sergey Sobyanin, headlined "'All this is done for motorists'", who speaks about investment projects in the city to be presented at the international property exhibition MIPIM; p 8 (4,978 words).

Izvestia

1. German Petelin article headlined "Oboronservis' subsidiary owes over R10bn" says that the maintenance and repair department, the sole heat energy supplier of the Defence Ministry, has appealed against a R150m-worth debt to the Transnefteprodukt company. The department admitted that its entire debt to creditors exceeds R10bn (some 322.58m dollars at the current exchange rate); pp 1, 4 (817 words).

2. Anastasiya Kashevarova and Svetlana Subbotina article headlined "Nabiullina aspires to post of Central Bank head" says that President Putin is to announce the candidacy of the new head of Central Bank by the end of March. The former Economic Development Minister Elvira Nabiullina is believed to be the most probable candidate for the post; pp 1, 3 (541 words).

3. Tatyana Shirmanova article headlined "Criminal article for bankers to be introduced by year end" says that a plan to set up an international financial centre in Russia envisages introducing by the end of 2013 criminal responsibility for bankers for submitting forged reports; pp 1, 4 (750 words).

4. Dmitriy Yevstifeyev et al. article headlined "Bilalov receives treatment from investigators in Germany" says that the former head of the company Resorts of the North Caucasus, Akhmed Bilalov, has left Russia for receiving medical treatment in Germany. Experts think that the move is linked to the Prosecutor-General's Office's interest in the activity of the company's leadership; pp 1, 4 (793 words).

5. Anastasiya Kashevarova article headlined "Leader of Kirov Region branch of One Russia may replace Zhurova" says that the secretary of the Kirov Region branch of the One Russia party, Vasiliy Surayev, is believed to be the most probable candidate for the post of a Federation Council senator instead of Svetlana Zhurova who has become a State Duma deputy; p 2 (435 words).

6. Mikhail Rubin interview with A Just Russia MP Dmitriy Gudkov, headlined "'US politicians will assist me in searching for our officials' property'", who speaks about his recent trip to the USA, where he collected information about Russian officials' property, and promised new exposures of officials; p 3 (813 words).

7. Yekaterina Kvon and Vladimir Barinov article headlined "Federal Security Service reveals fraud with anti-spy telephones in Interior Ministry" says that a corruption scandal over the purchase of telephones that cannot be tapped is brewing up in the Interior Ministry; p 5 (616 words).

9. Konstantin Volkov article headlined "Nicolas Maduro on Chavez's post advantageous to Russia" looks at the main successors of the late Venezuelan leader. The early presidential election is set for 14 April; p 7 (624 words).

10. Konstantin Volkov article headlined "Lack of contacts between leaders of two Koreas fraught with military incident" says that the situation on the Korean Peninsula has aggravated. Pyongyang denounced all the non-belligerency agreements with Seoul; p 7 (608 words).

11. Mariya Kiseleva article headlined "Russia wants to enter US market of military traffic" says that Russia wants to become part of the US Civil Reserve Air Fleet to support the US Department of Defense airlift requirements in emergencies when the need for airlift exceeds the capability of military aircraft; p 8 (622 words).

Rossiiskaya Gazeta

1. Vladimir Snegirev and Viktor Feshchenko article headlined "Body and business of Chavez" described the ceremony to pay tribute to the late Venezuelan leader; pp 1, 8 (1,380 words).

3. Tamara Shkel article headlined "Suitcases.net" says that the State Duma commission for control over deputies' income and property declarations has studied the cases of One Russia member Andrey Isayev and Liberal Democratic Party of Russia member Igor Ananskikh; p 2 (636 words).

4. Vladimir Bogdanov interview with Federal Drug Control Service head Viktor Ivanov, headlined "Healthy against will", who speaks about the fight against drug abuse in Russia; p 6 (2,126 words).

5. Niva Mirakyan article headlined "Waiting for white smoke" says that the conclave to elect the new Pope will be held on 12 March; p 8 (514 words).

Moskovsky Komsomolets

1. Zhanna Golubitskaya article headlined "State University of Management head got caught on toilet paper fraud?" says that the head of Moscow's State University of Management, Viktor Kozbanenko, has been arrested on suspicion of bribe-taking; pp 1, 7 (1,082 words).

2. Konstantin Smirnov article headlined "Housing utilities secret: how six per cent of Putin turn into 12 per cent of Medvedev" says that the Russian government has not followed President Putin's instruction to restrict the rise in housing utilities bill by 6 per cent and increased the limit to 12 per cent; pp 1, 3 (608 words).

3. Mikhail Rostovskiy article headlined "Writer Shishkin's case or poverty of beautiful gestures" comments on prominent Russian writer Mikhail Shishkin's refusal to join the official Russian delegation to a book fair in New York in protest against the "evil deeds by Putin's regime"; pp 1-2 (992 words).

5. Anonymous interview by the newspaper's cultural section, headlined "No-one trusts Dmitrichenko's confession", with a Bolshoi Theatre's dancer, who speaks about a secret meeting held by the theatre's staff to discuss the solving of the acid attack on the theatre's ballet director; pp 1-2 (1,579 words).

9. Andrey Malgin interview with the former husband of the coordinator of the Russian Mothers movement, Irina Bergset, headlined "Irina Bergset's former husband reveals secrets of main Russian Mother", who speaks about his marriage with the woman; p 6 (1,842 words).

Novaya Gazeta

1. Yulia Latynina article headlined "People on lease. Cheaply" comments on the fact that people were paid for participating in the 2 March rally in Moscow in defense of Russian orphans and looks at the organizer of the rally, Irina Bergset; pp 1, 3 (1,157 words).

2. Irek Murtazin article headlined "Release on parole likes silence" says that an information campaign being waged by relatives and supporters of the convicted Pussy Riot punk band members has diminished the chance of their release on parole; p 8 (791 words).

MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian court on Monday postponed the trial of a dead lawyer who accused law-enforcement authorities of massive corruption and whose case sparked a dispute between Washington and Moscow.

Magnitsky trial: Russia accused of 'travesty' over dead lawyerBBC News
"Absurd" and "a travesty" are some of the words used to describe Russia's trial of the dead lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, set to open on Monday. The European Parliament says the trial "is a violation of international and national laws and clearly shows the ...

U.S. sanctions against Russian officials implicated in the Sergei Magnitsky case may be just the beginning. Supporters are redoubling their efforts in Europe, where sanctions could have an even more biting impact.

Investigators have opened a criminal case into the transfer of a plot of Defense Ministry land to Valery Puzikov, former Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov's brother in law, Kommersant reported Monday.

Mike Nova's starred items

Top Syria opposition official meets Russia's LavrovGlobalPost
A top Syrian opposition official met Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday in a bid to reverse Moscow's refusal to back calls on President Bashar al-Assad to step down. Haytham Manna of the National Coordination Committee for Democratic ...

The Prosecutor General's Office, together with the Justice Ministry and the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service, has begun conducting large-scale unscheduled checks into non-governmental organizations to determine sources of foreign funding, a news report said Monday.

As Austria prepares to mark the anniversary of its annexation by Nazi Germany, an opinion poll has shown that more than half of the population think it highly likely that the Nazis would be elected if they were readmitted as a party.

Chinese space debris hits Russian satellite, scientists sayCNN
(CNN) -- A piece of space debris left over from a 2007 Chinese missile test collided with a Russian satellite earlier this year, rendering the satellite unusable, a researcher said Saturday. The collision appears to have happened January 22. That's ...

Anxiety as Putin picks new Russia central bank chiefThe Nation
MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin will in the next weeks choose a new head of Russia's central bank, with economists hoping he picks a dependable figure and not a wild card to head one of its few trusted institutions. The Bank Rossii (Bank of Russia...

A whistleblowing Russian lawyer whose death in custody became a symbol of rights abuses and strained relations with the United States will go on posthumous trial today in what relatives say is revenge by the Kremlin.

Former Georgian State Security Minister Valery Khaburdzania has said he intends to set up a new political party with a "pro-Russian" agenda, saying Georgia has pro-Western and pro-American parties so it should also have a pro-Russian one.

A senior lawmaker from A Just Russia who has been accused of fraud and deprived of his parliamentary immunity has been summoned to the Investigative Committee for questioning, RIA-Novosti reported Monday, citing the deputy's spokesperson.

Mike Nova's starred items

Russia has done almost nothing to recover the $230 million that lawyer Sergei Magnitsky alleged in 2008 had been stolen from Moscow’s coffers. Other countries -- most recently Moldova -- are now trying to follow the 5-year-old trail of allegedly laundered money.

Judge postpones hearing in controversial case of lawyer who died in detention while awaiting trial over alleged tax evasion
A Russian court has postponed the trial of the dead lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in the latest move to drag out the controversial case.
Magnitsky, the first person to be tried posthumously in Russia, stands accused of tax evasion, alongside his former employer, London-based investor William Browder. Magnitsky died in pre-trial detention in 2009.
Browder has been banned from entering Russia. The head of the investment fund Hermitage Capital was accused of tax evasion after falling foul of the Russian government.
Investigating the charges in 2008, Browder's auditor and lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, discovered that police and tax officials had colluded to steal Hermitage's tax payments for their own enrichment. The case has come to exemplify Russia's corrupt justice system.
Dozens of journalists packed a tiny courtroom in central Moscow on Monday to hear the opening of the case. A cage with thick bars, designed to hold the defendants, stood empty.
Magnitsky's relatives and their lawyers have refused to take part in the trial, calling it a mockery of justice.
The court appointed two lawyers to stand in their stead, but neither showed up to the hearing on Monday. They had petitioned the court to delay the hearing until May, claiming to have read just five of the 60 volumes of dense texts that comprise the state's case against Magnitsky.
The judge approved a petition by state prosecutors to postpone the hearing until 22 March instead.
Russia's supreme court approved posthumous trials in 2011 with the aim of providing a way for relatives to clear the names of family members.
Magnitsky's relatives have opposed the trial and argue that it cannot go ahead without their approval.
Magnitsky died after being denied medical treatment for ailments he developed while awaiting trial. The Kremlin's human rights commission later found evidence he had been beaten.
The only person tried in relation to his death, a prison doctor, was acquitted last year.

Investigators questioned two prominent opposition activists from St. Petersburg last Wednesday as part of a criminal investigation into violence at an anti-Kremlin demonstration on Moscow's Bolotnaya Ploshchad last year.

Mike Nova's starred items

GENEVA (Reuters) - The Syrian government is reportedly using local militias known as Popular Committees to commit mass killings which are at times sectarian in nature, U.N. human rights investigators said on Monday. The uprising in Syria erupted two years ago with largely peaceful protests but escalated into a civil war pitting mainly Sunni Muslim rebels against President Bashar al-Assad, whose Alawite faith is an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam. "In a disturbing and dangerous trend, mass killings allegedly perpetrated by Popular Committees have at times taken on sectarian overtones," the U.N. ...

By Maria Tsvetkova MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia attempted but failed on Monday to start the trial of dead lawyer Sergei Magnitsky - a case that critics say the Kremlin is pursuing to discredit his allegations of embezzlement by government officials. Magnitsky, who died in custody, is the first person to be tried posthumously in Russia. While his attendance was never on the cards, his defense team also failed to show up, leading to Judge Igor Alisov to postpone the trial until March 22. "The defense team... ...

GENEVA (Reuters) - The Syrian government is reportedly using local militias known as Popular Committees to commit mass killings which are at times sectarian in nature, U.N. human rights investigators said on Monday.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The driver of the bus in which a young Indian woman was gang-raped and fatally injured in December hanged himself in his jail cell on Monday, prison authorities said, but his family and lawyer said they suspected "foul play".

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Cardinals held final discussions on the troubled state of the Roman Catholic Church on Monday, the day before they seclude themselves from the world to elect a new pontiff, with no frontrunner in view.

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba's Fidel Castro praised the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Monday as a champion of the poor and said Cubans had lost their best friend ever, in his first comments on the death last week of his socialist ally.

"I have come a long way from the life I had in the late ’90s, when, flush with cash from an Internet start-up sale, I had a giant house crammed with stuff — electronics and cars and appliances and gadgets," writes Graham Hill in Opinion. "Somehow this stuff ended up running my life, or a lot of it; the things I consumed ended up consuming me."

Russia should join NATO: the benefits for the Global Security are enormous

To reformulate Lord Ismay's phrase: 1) Take Russia in, 2) Continue keeping Germany down, 3) Assert and exercise the US leadership position within the NATO as a unifying and directing force and vector.

"Ловец Человеков"

Connected? The halo is there. And the Book is there. And the disciples are there. But where is the Light of Understanding, in this big curved dark tunnel of a vision? Where is the big red dot? Where is the new beginning?

Russia and US Presidential Elections of 2016 - Google News

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russia ukraine - Google News

West, Russia, Putin

US - Russia relations - Google News

Hillary Clinton and rock group Pussy Riot

"Great to meet the strong & brave young women from #PussyRiot, who refuse to let their voices be silenced in #Russia. 1:09 PM - 4 Apr 2014" - Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton tweeted a picture Friday of her posing with members of the anti-Vladimir Putin punk rock group Pussy Riot. Clinton met with the women during the "Women in the World Summit" in New York. The group has emerged as chief opponents of Putin, and three members were jailed in 2012 after an anti-Putin performance at a church. The tweet has been re-tweeted almost 10,000 times.